Brunswick: Trophy plant closing; Sea Ray trims ranks

Brunswick Corp. plans to close its Cumberland, Md., plant and transfer production of Trophy offshore fishing boats to a plant in Ashland City, Tenn.

Manufacturing will cease at the Maryland plant at the end of the year, and about 115 production and support positions will be eliminated.

The Cumberland plant also will observe three weeks of furlough, during which time all boat production is temporarily stopped while the phase-out is completed, company officials said.

As we deal with the global economic downturn and its impact on recreational marine markets, we are continuing to shrink our North American manufacturing footprint, Brunswick chairman and CEO Dustan E. McCoy said in a statement. This decision is no reflection upon the Cumberland work force or product, but the result of our need to develop a more efficient manufacturing footprint.

In the last two years, Lake Forest, Ill.-based Brunswick has closed 12 other North American boatbuilding plants.